KIRKUS REVIEW

Seidner’s
debut sci-fi about one woman’s quest in a bleakly depopulated future.

Capt.
Heather Staman is a Pure Born. Having been raised to maturity in Safe Zone I, a
place of nutrition tubes and strict laws, she has been “assigned a path to an
elite function.” Heather’s job as an officer for the Maintainers is to reclaim
“genetically perfect beings for the breeders to rear behind the shielded walls
where the Powers abided.” It is a task that eventually takes her beyond Safe
Zone I and into a world where the moon can’t be seen due to fallout from
nuclear war. Given the task of finding a redheaded girl and bringing her back
to the Powers (i.e., the ruling elite), Heather sets about her assignment with
utmost seriousness. Life beyond Safe Zone I is dangerous, with civil unrest
becoming ever more common: “The riots were no longer isolated outbursts
performed by frazzled individuals, but rather they were building in intensity,
showing communities working together to overthrow the Powers and take down the
immigration walls.” Pinpointing her target, Heather finds an “exotic microcosm”
that’s more advanced than she imagined. As the story progresses past Heather’s
mission with the redheaded girl, readers learn more about the world, one in
which Heather’s partner Colm grows roses of different colors, though none have a
scent. What will happen in this bizarre setting of social unrest and genetic
obsessions? Complex in its makeup, the society presented sometimes proves
difficult to elucidate. The book begins with a “Contractual Agreement” that
explains such details as Orb light and Social Norms, yet actions and events of
interest take their time in appearing. The complexity nevertheless leads to
exciting possibilities, as with the seemingly strange match of an officer like
Heather and a “grower of roses” like Colm. As Colm admits: “I wonder, why did
they put us together. Our stations, our temperaments, the way we think and act,
we don’t match at all.”

Building
on the dystopian traditions of Orwell and Huxley, the story intriguingly
examines not just troubled society but the individuals living in it.

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